Table of Contents:
Index to Tips
Getting Started
AA (Associate of Arts Degree)
Advisor Session Record
Business
Certification
Color, American Writers of
Diversity Requirement, American (GER)
English Education
Enrollment Advisory Form
Foreign Language Requirement
General Advising Tips
General Education Requirements
Intercultural Requirement
Holds
Humanities Requirement
Loads
Math Requirement
Portfolio
University writing portfolio
Departmental portfolio
Physical Education Activity Courses
Prelaw
Science Requirement
Tier III Requirement
Writing Requirement (GER)
Web Resources for Advising
RoNet: http://www.ronet.wsu.edu/
The place to start. Be sure you have training and permission to use the resources on RoNet, including removing of advising holds and running degree audit reports.
WebCat: https://ais.wsu.edu/ais/webCAT/
Access advisee records, including placement test scores, etc. This Web-based resource combines a lot of information on one page. Training and permission required: phone Jane Parker at 5-1491.
The Catalog: http://catalog.wsu.edu/Catalog/Apps/HomePage.ASP
The official source of information about regulations, programs, courses. Call it to students' attention and remind them to look at catalog descriptions before choosing classes.
The Time Schedule: http://www.schedules.wsu.edu/Schedules/.
Check which courses are actually being offered in a particular semester. Urge students to click on section numbers for each course to read the catalog copy, including possible prerequisites.
Search for Classes: http://www.schedules.wsu.edu/Schedules/Apps/Search.ASP
Note the ability to search for open GER courses; very handy. Check the box labeled "Only list sections with available seats." Note that with every re-use in a single session you have to undo previous menu choices to start over: the form does not clear itself.
myWSU: http://mywsu
Where students find out when they are supposed to register (upper left-hand corner link) and actually do their registering. They have access to most of the resources listed above here. Students can also log in to find out when they register.
Schedule Surfer: http://schedulesurfer.salc.wsu.edu/Client/index.html
The quickest way to find out if a schedule will work; runs better on some browsers than others. Loads rather slowly on some browsers and computers; be patient. Requires you to allow pop-up windows.
Transfer Course Equivalencies Page: http://www.it.wsu.edu/AIS/SIC/cgi-bin/dars_tca_rqst.cgi
A great tool for determining whether a course at another school transfers in and vice versa.
Be sure to post sign-up sheets on your
office doors for advising times; students are told to use them. Be available at the
times you've said you would be; it's the single biggest complaint we get on
exit interviews from students: being unable to find their advisors or the
advisor failing to be in the office for a scheduled appointment.
Remind students to come in with a
tentative list of courses or ideas of what they want to take. You should not
have to start from scratch; but urge them to be flexible and understand that
their first choices may not be the most appropriate ones.
If students phone up saying "I need you to remove
my advising hold" and you have not yet advised them, remind them that they
need to come in for advising first.
Removing the hold is only the consequence of the advising, not the point of the
exercise. On the other hand, if you have advised them, you may have forgotten
to remove the hold. At the end of every appointment, remember to remove the
advising hold. You can do this while they're filling out the Enrollment
Advisory Form. If the student later calls to say a hold is still in effect and
you can confirm you released their advising hold, ask for the precise wording
of the hold. It may be for nonpayment of fees or lack of inoculation rather
than for lack of advising.
Remind students to read the first general section of the guide to the
degree.
It's nice to welcome new advisees, and very useful to ask them first
about their interest in English. Try to
determine what their vocational plans are and if they seem vague, go over the
various options.
Ask students to bring paper and something to write with them. Don't start the advising session until they are
ready to write.
Have English majors get their file from Jerri's office (in the case of SALC students, advisors keep those
files in their offices). Remind students to register when they are supposed to:
small enrollments in courses may result in cancelled classes. If you have made
substitutions which need to be changed on the student's DARS, bring that to
Jerri's attention either by mentioning them or placing a note on the front of
the file so she can make the changes quickly. Student folders can be placed in
the mail slot outside Jerri's door or on a chair in her office. You don’t have
to make a special trip to return them; you can wait until you have several or
at the end of the day or whenever it's convenient for you.
In the student's folder is a form which invites advisors to record what they have told the student, what they have discussed during the session. Please remember to fill out that form at each session and have the student sign it. It is your insurance (and the student's) and documentation should there ever be a question about what you advised the student to do.
Also remember to complete the Enrollment Advisory Form. Remember to fill out
the student's information, particularly their cell phone number so we have a
current way to reach them should the need arise. These forms used to be used
for the student to be allowed to register. Now, they just are kept in the
student's folder, again, as proof of what classes you advised them to take.
Students routinely overlook the blank for Date. Be sure they put the semester
and year in this so we have a record of when the advising took place. Be sure
to draw a line and add up the total number of hours on each of them so if they
take on more of a load than you advised, it will be evident. Anything over 18
hours is an overload, and the student must pay a heavy per-credit fee for the
extra hours. 15-16 hours is a normal semester load.
15-16 hours is a normal semester load and 12 hours is the
minimum load for a full-time student. International students, athletes, and financial aid
students have specific requirements for the number of hours they must maintain.
They usually know these, but ask about them if it seems an issue.
At the end of every appointment,
remember to remove the advising hold.
When you are talking with students about
courses they must take, please don't use the phrase "get this or that
class out of the way." It's insulting to our colleagues and to the
institution. We take great pains to create requirements that we believe will
make for a better education, and we should not encourage the attitude that they
are meaningless hurdles to be gotten past.
Make sure students are doing the writing portfolio, hanging on to
sample papers, signing up. The rule says that students are to submit their
"Junior Writing Portfolio no later than the end of the first semester
after completing 60 credit hours. Transfer students entering with 60 or more
credits must initiate the Junior Writing Portfolio by the end of their first
semester at WSU." Students who wait until just before they plan to
graduate may find they are unable to get their degree without further study, so
it is extremely important to urge them to do this in a timely manner. Direct
them to the Writing Portfolio Site at http://www.wsu.edu/~jrpf/. It also
contains a good page of information for advisors: http://www.wsu.edu/~jrpf/JPAdvisorInfo.html.
Make sure they take a Tier III class in their junior or
senior year. Note that some Tier IIIs have prerequisites. Be sure to check.
Remember that Humanities 410: Love in the Arts, is designed as a Tier III for
English majors, containing lots of poetry, drama, and fiction in translation.
Spring 2007 we are also offering Humanities 450: Representations of the
Holocaust, which is also an excellent Tier III class and will count for English
majors as well as others.The Tier III requirement applies even to transfer
students with an AA degree, since that degree satisfies only lower-division
GERs.
Remind students to be sure to complete the English
Writing Portfolio requirement which includes bringing in a paper from Engl 302
and one from their senior (or upper division) literature or creative writing
course as well as completing the exit questionnaire and turning it in. Make
clear that this is not the same as the Junior Writing Portfolio required as
part of the GERs of all students.
Students wishing to certify a major in English must have
a 2.0 grade point average and must maintain that to graduate. They can certify as soon as they have completed 24
hours. There are no additional prerequisites. Send them to Jerri Smith's office
in Avery 202B to certify.
The current English major and its options are described
in the current advising handbook. There are copies available in Jerri's office, but
you can also download, view, and print it on the department Web site at http://libarts.wsu.edu/english/undergraduate/FacRes.html.
Just click on "Download Guide to the English Major." This is a pdf
file, and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader or an Acrobat plug-in installed on
your computer to read it.
For information about advising students who are interested in
English Teaching, see the English Education
Advising Notes. Remember when people indicate they are interested in
Teaching and Learning to hand them the white four-page paper of information as
well.
Creative writing remains unchanged.
Follow the patterns in the current handbook. There will be some changes
beginning fall 2007 which will affect only students declaring their major then
or later.
As you know, we approved major changes for this year. Here are some tips about phasing in the new
options.
Students scheduled to graduate in the spring who wish to follow the old
option patterns need to finish their
degree using the current guidelines as described in the 2005-2006 Handbook
(availble on our Web site) and in the 2005-2006 WSU Catalog. However, since we
greatly loosened our requirements, it would make sense to be more than usually
flexible about letting students substitute courses for requirements where they
need to. Do remember that the writers-of-color
requirement is being maintained, and will
not be waived. For spring 2007 English 309 and 332 have been approved as
fulfilling this requirement.
Remember to note all substitutions on the advising form and initial them. They will not be entered into the students DARS
report until you've initialed them and called Jerri's attention to the
substitution.
Students who will not graduate until spring 2008 or later will want to consider switching to one of the a new
major options. Those interested mainly in literature should prepare for the new literary studies option
by taking English 302 and the two of the readings courses, numbered English 371
(17th and 18th Century Transnational Literature in
English) and 373 (20th and 21st Century Global
Literatures in English). English teaching majors who want to follow the pattern
approved for next year but not yet in effect should also take these classes. It
is very much in the interests of students expecting to graduate next academic
year in the English education option to do follow the new pattern since it is
more flexible than the current one.
Those interested mainly in writing should begin the
new rhetoric and professional writing option
by taking English 302, 301, and perhaps either 371 or 373 (they need one of the
readings classes). Another good choice would be 401. Those particularly
interested in professional writing will need 402 or 403. This option is
especially aimed at serving the needs of pre-law and business-oriented
students, but it is also attracting a number of would-be journalists.
The English options of Business and Pre-Law are being
phased out. Encourage students interested
in business or law to do the Rhetoric and Professional Writing major. We no
longer recommend that students do a business minor, since those minors have
become very difficult to enter. Students should also be told that many law
schools are happy to admit English majors without the "prelaw" label
on their transcript.
Those options with a Humanities requirement have expanded it
in recent years to include more courses: Hum 101, 103, 302, 303, 304, 335, 350, 410, or
450. Remember that these courses can count as GERs or be substituted for
English literature classes where appropriate. Starting next fall all our our
options will have the identifical Humanities requirement.
General Education Requirement tips
Be sure to check for each student you advise to see that they
have completed the foreign language requirement. Students from smaller schools are often
admitted without a second year of a foreign language. They should check with
Foreign Languages if they are uncertain which course to take.
In fulfilling their GERs in written and spoken communication, students sometimes think that COMST 102 (Public Speaking) is required, but this is true in our department only for English Teaching majors seeking a certificate. The second W course our majors take is generally English 302. NOTE THAT COMST 102 is NO LONGER REQUIRED FOR EUDCATION MAJORS.
On the English option sheet in each
student's file, there are two columns beside each requirement. The first space
is for the year and semester in which the class is going to be taken and the
second space is for the grade received. It is suggested you do the same for
GERs as well.
Note
that the American Diversity (D) GER and the Intercultural Studies (I) requirements
are not necessarily add-ons to the total number of hours required, and can be
satisfied by designated courses that also offer an H (G) or S (K). They must be
outside the major (no ENGL prefix) to satisfy the GER requirements. You can use
the Search for
Classes tool to find open classes that satisfy the requirements. Humanities
classes can fulfill the H requirement for English majors, and are a good
choice.
Students who have tested on the Math Placement and are found
to need remedial math must now pay big bucks beyond their basic tuition charges
to take those courses. Students who do not place into a college-level math
class can transfer such a class in from a community college, bypassing the
remedial course. If they seem qualified and are willing to take math in summer
school, they may want to take this option, provided there is a community
college where they will be living which qualifies. They can check
transferability by consulting the Transfer Course
Equivalencies Page: http://www.it.wsu.edu/AIS/SIC/cgi-bin/dars_tca_rqst.cgi.
Math 205 is a good suggestion for advisees who qualify. Students generally find this course in statistical
literacy more useful and interesting than 210, which is a general survey of
math. Students taking 210 should be urged to take it seriously. It is not
uncommon for them to stop going after the first few weeks because it reviews
familiar material, and then get blindsided by the later less familiar material
in the course and flunk out. Math 107 is precalculus, good for students
planning further studies in science or engineering, but much tougher than 205
or 210. You cannot judge the difficulty of lower-division math classes based on
their numbers. English majors must have 12 hours of
science credits to graduate--not the 10 of people in most other colleges. Most
English majors take ES/RP 101 (now a laboratory class), Biol 102 and Geol 101.
Students often take a three-credit class like FSHN 130 which leaves them one
hour short of the 12-hour requirement. Good choices for filling in the missing
hour are Astr 390 and Biol 201 (which has a pre-requisite of 102 or other lower-division
biology class).
If you have time and are interested in
the process, consider asking an advisee to log on to myWSU while they are in
your office and register as you watch them. This works only after the student's
assigned advising time has arrived. You will be able to help them navigate and
will see the problems which they incur as they go along. Certainly not
something you'll want to do with every student, but very educational if you've
never seen how myWSU works for them. Note that students now go to myWSU rather
than Metro to register.
Encourage your advisees to go talk to
the professor teaching the course in which they are interested if they have
questions about whether the class is right for them. Another great
idea is to look at the textbooks in the Bookie to see what the material looks
like.
Students often find that a 1-credit PEACT class is useful for
giving them a break from studies and earning them a low-risk credit of one hour
toward graduation. These courses are graded on an A/S/F basis, so
unless the student really messes up, they will not hurt a GPA and can be fun.
Strenuousness ranges from fly-fishing to scuba diving. Note that some of the
classes have extra equipment fees. There are separate schedule line numbers for
men and women only in the social dance course, where they try to provide
everyone with a partner. Other PEACT courses are coeducational, except for
fencing (men’s ams average longer).
Students interested in dance should be told that
besides the PEACT courses, there are excellent ones in modern and jazz dancing
offered under "DANCE."
Ask transfer students whether they have an AA degree. If they say they do,
but it doesn't appear on their DARS report, ask them to check to make sure that
their transcript was sent to the Admissions Office. If they are just a few
courses short of an AA, tell them they can complete the missing courses here
and transfer them back to their community college. Having an AA satisfies all
the lower-division GERs (though not the College of Liberal Arts requirements,
including the two extra hours of science, including one of lab). Remind them
that it does not satisfy the upper-division GER requirements, like the writing
portfolio and the Tier III class. Note that Jerri smith can check to see
whether Admissions has received a student's transcript from another
institution.
Last revised October 16, 2006.
Paul Brians